Rich cravings: the rise and rise of posh doughnuts

Bakers have added fashionable fillings and toppings to doughnuts. The craze for expensive doughnuts, like that for cupcakes, began in the US. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
David Levene/Guardian

First it was the cupcake that was given a glamorous makeover to become a global phenomenon. Then macaroons became the fashionable choice, popping up everywhere from TV shows to fashion shows. Now, it seems, it's the turn of the humble doughnut.

Bakers are transforming the childhood treats into a gourmet experience with fashionable fillings, stylish toppings – and prices to match.

But despite costing several pounds more than the average high street doughnut (a bargain at under 50p), retailers report they are doing a roaring trade in posh doughnuts, which are selling everywhere from food trucks to festivals, pop-up shops to high end food halls.

Companies such as Crosstown doughnuts offer a dizzying array of trendy flavours in the place of jam, from salted caramel to chocolate and chilli cream. Each doughnut is carefully styled with specialist glazings and toppings to look "colourful and playful", according to founder JP Then.

The company has been in business for just two months, but from next month their £3.50 doughnuts will be sold in Selfridges on London's Oxford Street.

Chris Brockman from research analyst Mintel says the craze for expensive doughnuts, like that for cupcakes, began in the US.

"Doughnuts were appearing on restaurant menus in the US back in 2010, and became a key trend in 2012," he says. "They have been a trend in the UK for the past couple of years with a lot of market stalls and independent bakeries."

Smaller companies could see the popularity of doughnuts from the success of large US businesses such as Krispy Kreme, sold at Tescos, and Dunkin' Donuts. Krispy Kreme has 49 stores across Britain and says it sells around 165,000 doughnuts a day and in excess of 60 million a year.

Then admits he came up with the idea of creating classy doughnuts for the UK market after visiting US shops such as Doughnut Plant in New York.

"We saw a gap in the market. Doughnuts are very popular in the UK, there's a nostalgia around them, but there was nothing above a Krispy Kreme." Dum Dums doughnuts – whose "croissant doughnuts" sell for £20 for a box of nine – have a similar success story. Founder Paul Hurley once ran a Dunkin' Donut franchise, but now creates his own baked doughnuts. He opened his first shop in Shoreditch, east London, in February, and says by the end of the first week he was selling 2,000 doughnuts a day. He now has a concession in Harrods, with two more shops opening in the next two months.

St John Bakery, one of English chef Fergus Henderson's eateries, was an early adopter of the trend. Its high-end doughnuts made with seasonal jams have been on sale for more then four years and are its bestseller, with the bakery's market stalls shifting about 400 every weekend.

The choice to use high quality ingredients, Brockman says, "reflects the fact the sweet bakery market has been fashion led for the past few years – it has been premiumised to a high degree".

You Doughnut, another independent seller, ticks three fashions in food – miniaturising doughnuts, using quality ingredients, and capitalising on the street food trend by selling a bite-sized, artisan doughnut from a food truck.

Homa Khaleeli tries a gourmet doughnuts. Bakers have added fashionable fillings and toppings to the sweet treats. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian David Levene/Guardian

In its 2013 report on bakeries Mintel suggested that the sweet baked goods market – which includes crumpets, croissants and brioche rolls – had a sales value of £546m and that 39% of people in Britain had eaten a doughnut between July and September that year.

But Brockman says the ubiquity of gourmet doughnuts hides a hole in the centre of the market that could stop them becoming as popular as the cupcake. According to their latest, unpublished data, doughnut consumption this year has dropped, which he puts down to increased publicity about the links between sugar and obesity.

Gourmet doughnuts, he says, are a way for independent bakers to buck this trend – with the possibility of branching out into international doughnuts such as churros or beignets in the future. "This trend is based around offering interesting flavours, reflecting the point that consumers are becoming more experimental. Doughnuts are a base product – you can top it with anything."

Gourmet doughnuts

The rise of the gourmet doughnut comes from a red hot, bubbling cauldron of trends. Once chiefly regarded as the reason US police officers have heart attacks, doughnuts now obligingly fit many fads. Krispy Kreme, the high street brand, arrived in the UK from America in 2003, when a stand opened in Harrods – now sold everywhere from Selfridges to motorway service stations and Tesco, they're a democratic way to give yourself a stuffing.

They can count as "dirty" food (indulgent Americana, poshed-up with premium ingredients but retaining a heart of junk, and usually fried), artisan food (the puff daddies of London doughnuts are Justin Gellatly's handmade, slowly risen beauties, complete with fillings like bay leaf and apple custard) or retro food, with a hint of fairground nostalgia.

Gellatly developed the famous St John 'nut during his time at Fergus Henderson's restaurant in London; they've been so important to his career that they star on the front of his book, Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding.

A chef's plaything, they can be stuffed with savoury fillings like the spicy ox cheek at high-rise Duck and Waffle, also in London, or the bun-style crab versions at Chiltern Firehouse, again in the capital; this is anathema to some, but adds a versatility that ensures their continued presence on restaurant menus. They were the come-hither element in Dominique Ansel's barnstorming portmanteau pastry, the cronut, a cross between a croissant and a doughnut that had New Yorkers queuing for hours. They're handheld, easy to eat (nobody cares if you lick your lips or not, just don't make a show of yourself), most often sugary, and fried. What's not to like?